Bellairs Research Institute

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Bellairs Research Institute
Bellairs Research Institute

The Bellairs Research Institute located on the Caribbean island nation of Barbados was founded in 1954, as a field-station for McGill University. Initial funding was from a bequest by British naval commander, Carlyon Bellairs, for whom the institute is named. Bellairs is located in Holetown, next to Folkstone Park, steps away from the beach.

Initially founded as a marine biology field station, it is also currently used for undergraduates to partake in a Barbados Field Study Semester (BFSS). Environmental Engineering, International Development Studies and Environmental Studies are some of the areas it caters to.

Bellairs runs numerous McGill University fieldcourses and workshops throughout the year, including Applied Tropical Ecology, Geography, and the Barbados Field Study Semester. Bellairs also holds annual fieldcourses from other universities from around the world including the University of Toronto (marine biology) and Western Michigan University (archeology).

In 2005, a former Bellairs student (Stephan Becker) and a former teaching assistant (Ian Popple) on McGill’s Applied Tropical Ecology course co-founded Beautiful Oceans. Much of the content of Beautiful Oceans' coral reef biology courses was developed from the educational content of the McGill's Applied Tropical Ecology fieldcourse run at Bellairs. Beautiful Oceans courses are designed to appeal to the general public (particularly divers and snorkelers) and are now taught at dive centers in Barbados, the US, Canada and other Caribbean islands.

Bellairs has been involved in some of the critical testing of McGill University’s groundbreaking AQUA project – the world’s first robot capable of walking and swimming underwater. [1]

The main campus of McGill University is based in the city of Montreal, in Quebec, Canada.

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